Quick answer: which business email should a small business choose?

If you mainly need professional email at your own domain, Hostinger Business Email is the cheapest option on this list: Starter lists at $0.59 per mailbox per month with 5 GB of storage and Premium at $2.99 per mailbox with 50 GB, both on a 12-month term. Google Workspace starts at $7 per user per month and bundles Gmail, 30 GB of pooled storage, Meet and Docs, and Zoho Mail has a free plan for up to 5 users with 5 GB per user but without IMAP or POP.

The decision is not only price. If your team lives in Google Docs, Drive and Meet, Workspace is worth the premium. If you want the cheapest professional addresses and a simple webmail, Hostinger is the better value. If you want a free start, Zoho Mail Free is an option with limits.

Business email at a glance

• Hostinger Starter: $0.59 per mailbox per month, 5 GB, 5 forwarding rules, 5 aliases.
• Hostinger Premium: $2.99 per mailbox per month, 50 GB, 50 forwarding rules, 30 aliases.
• Google Workspace Business Starter: $7 per user per month, 30 GB pooled storage, Gmail and Gemini in Gmail.
• Zoho Mail Free: up to 5 users, 5 GB per user, no IMAP or POP, custom email for one domain.
• Always set SPF, DKIM and DMARC so your messages are trusted.

Why a business should not use a free mailbox

Using a free mailbox for company correspondence works at the start, but it quietly costs you credibility. Customers, suppliers and banks judge a business by details, and an address at your own domain looks more established than one at a free webmail service. It also shows your brand every time you send a message.

There is a practical side too. When mail lives at a personal free account, it leaves with the person who owned it. When mail lives at your own domain, you control the accounts, can create or remove mailboxes as your team changes, and can keep a clear separation between personal and company messages.

Benefits of email at your own domain

Business email plans and prices

Prices shown are for a 12-month term; 24 and 48-month terms use different prices. The 20% discount applies to a first purchase.

Starter Business Email: for one person or a very small team

Starter is the entry plan at $0.59 per month per mailbox on a 12-month term. It gives 5 GB of storage per mailbox, expandable storage, 5 forwarding rules, 5 email aliases and a free domain. It is described as perfect for small businesses that are starting to build their brand.

It is enough for a freelancer, a small shop or a startup whose mailbox mainly receives enquiries and sends quotes. If you send many attachments or keep years of messages, 5 GB can fill up, so check your usage.

Premium Business Email: for teams that need space and flexibility

Premium is the most popular plan at $2.99 per month per mailbox. It provides 50 GB of storage per mailbox, expandable storage, 50 forwarding rules, 30 email aliases and a free domain, and it is meant for scaling teams that need plenty of email storage.

Choose Premium if your team exchanges large files, keeps long histories, uses many aliases such as sales@, billing@ and support@, or needs more rules for sorting and routing messages.

Starter and Premium compared

Specifications and prices from Hostinger's referral plan pop-up, checked 24 October 2026. Prices are per mailbox.

What are aliases and forwarding rules?

An alias is an extra address that delivers into an existing mailbox. For example info@, sales@ and support@ can all land in one person's inbox while customers see a role-based address. Forwarding rules automatically send copies of incoming messages to another mailbox, for example sending every enquiry to both sales and the owner.

Used well, aliases and rules help a small team look larger and stay organised, and they make handovers easier because a role address does not depend on one person.

How to set up business email correctly

Email deliverability checklist

• SPF, DKIM and DMARC are all configured and pass.
• Your domain has a valid reverse setup and no blacklist entries.
• You send from a real, consistent address with a clear sender name.
• You do not send bulk marketing from a normal mailbox; use a proper email marketing tool for newsletters.
• You avoid spam-trigger wording, huge images and link shorteners in important messages.
• You warm up new addresses by sending to engaged contacts first.

Use email apps, webmail or both?

You can read mail in a web interface or connect mailboxes to apps on your phone and computer using standard protocols. Set up your mailbox on every device you use and enable two-factor authentication where available. Keep a policy for how long you retain mail and how you back up important messages.

Security habits for business mailboxes

• Use strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication where supported.
• Teach your team to recognise phishing and verify payment requests by phone.
• Remove mailboxes and aliases promptly when staff leave.
• Do not share one mailbox password across several people; use aliases or delegation instead.
• Review forwarding rules regularly, because attackers sometimes add hidden forwarding to steal mail.

Migrating from a free mailbox

Email for newsletters and marketing

A business mailbox is for one-to-one communication. Newsletters and campaigns need an email marketing tool that handles unsubscribe links, bounce management and sending reputation. We cover that in our guide to email marketing with Hostinger Reach, and you can also combine hosting, email and email marketing in a bundle.

Hostinger vs Google Workspace vs Zoho Mail

Hostinger from its referral plan pop-up (24 Oct 2026). Google Workspace from its public pricing page and Zoho from its pricing page, viewed October 2026. Google runs periodic promotions; list prices are shown.

What a team of five costs per year

Illustrative. Excludes taxes, domain registration and promotions. Hostinger's price is per mailbox on a 12-month term.

How to read the cost comparison

The price gap is large: five Premium mailboxes cost about $180 for a year at list price, against $420 for Workspace Starter. But the products are not equal. Workspace includes the Google apps and a pooled storage model, which saves money if your team needs Docs, Sheets, Drive and Meet. Hostinger gives email and nothing else, which is exactly what many small businesses want.

Zoho's free plan is generous for tiny teams but limited in features, and the 5-user cap makes it a stepping stone rather than a long-term plan for a growing company.

Features that matter more than price

Setting up email so it reaches the inbox

Aliases, shared inboxes and forwarding: a small-team design

A simple design for a five-person company: one mailbox per person, role aliases for info@, sales@, support@ and billing@ forwarding to the right people, and a forwarding rule that copies new enquiries to the owner. This keeps customers' addresses stable when staff change and lets you grow without changing your public email addresses.

When someone leaves, remove their mailbox, re-point the aliases and set an auto-reply for the transition period. Review forwarding rules regularly because attackers sometimes add hidden ones.

Free email vs business email: the true cost of looking small

A free mailbox costs nothing but can cost enquiries. Buyers, banks and partners look for a business domain, and many spam filters treat free-domain senders in cold outreach more cautiously. For a few dollars a year per mailbox, a domain-based address is one of the cheapest trust upgrades available.

Sources and how we compared

Hostinger specifications and prices come from its referral plan pop-up on 24 October 2026. Google Workspace figures come from its public pricing page and Zoho Mail figures from its public pricing page, both viewed in October 2026. Zoho's page did not show paid plan prices in the version we read, so we compare its free plan only.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading